United North American States
A contributing nation to the Systems Alliance, existing from the late 21st Century through to the Reaper War, in which - like all Earth nations - it became defunct. Sometime around 2096, the existing countries of Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America united to form the United North American States. This new union was strongly opposed by factions of secessionists, including the extremist group Freedoms First. On the morning of November 1, 2096, the New York chapter of Freedoms First attacked Liberty Island and destroyed the Statue of Liberty. Outrage at this brazen act triggered the Second American Civil War between the secessionists and UNAS forces. On November 4th, President Kaitlin Cheung signed an executive order to rebuild the statue. Approximately one-tenth of the steel beams and copper plating from the destroyed statue was recovered and used in creating the new one. The original’s head was put on display in the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. It remained there for two years until the Battle of Washington. During heavy shelling by secessionist forces, the head disappeared. A new statue was completed in 2101, and the fate of the original pieces was left for speculation and pulp novels. Interest flared up briefly in 2159 when photos surfaced of the head in the cargo hold of a star freighter, but by that time human media were far more concerned with the future. In the face of humanity spreading out among thousands of new planets, a statue titled “Liberty Enlightening the World” seemed small and quaint by comparison. In 2149 CE, following the discovery of a cache of Prothean technology on Mars, the United North American States and seventeen other nations ratified the Systems Alliance charter, establishing a representative political body to expand and defend human territory. The UNAS also contributed military assets to the Systems Alliance’s fledgling military. The garden world of Watson (in the distant Sigurd's Cradle) was discovered in 2165 CE, with credit claimed by the UNAS as well as the Chinese People's Federation and the European Union. This resulted in a political dispute over which nation could settle Watson first. To resolve this, the Systems Alliance brokered the Reykjavik Compromise which allowed each nation to establish its own settlements on the planet. In 2176 CE, President Enrique Aguilar of the UNAS was assassinated during a photo opportunity with Chinese People’s Federation premier Ying Xiong. The perpetrator was Michael Moser Lang, a patent clerk and political dissident from Virginia. Lang obtained a Kassa Fabrication M-12 Locust submachine gun and concealed it within a shoulder-mounted video camera which he brought to the event. The first burst from Lang’s weapon broke through the kinetic barriers protecting the stage. Xiong attempted to shield Aguilar from the line of fire, but Lang’s next shots passed completely through Xiong and killed both men. A later controversy involved UNAS President Huerta suffering a stroke that left him legally dead for 90 minutes before his brain functions were transferred to a computer. In 2185 CE, UNAS Speaker of the House Lisa Ford brought a case against Huerta arguing that his time in office after the stroke was illegitimate; if Huerta was considered dead, then according to the country’s line of succession Ford would have been Vice President for the past year. The Systems Alliance agreed to hear the case of Ford v. Huerta, and ruled in a 5-4 decision that Huerta’s term in office after his stroke was legitimate. This resulted in a wave of protests against the decision in several major UNAS cities. The UNAS was invaded by the Reapers in 2186, early in the Reaper War. Commander Shepard was present in the city of Vancouver as the first Reaper forces landed there, and escaped on the Normandy SR-2. Simultaneously, reporter Emily Wong witnessed the invasion at Los Angeles and transmitted her experience via a Quantum Entanglement Communicator, one of the few communication systems that continued to function after the Reapers destroyed the comm. buoy networks, GPS and communications satellites, and undersea fiber-optic cables. The Reapers bombarded military bases, nuclear missile silos, industrial centers, and completely annihilated cities with populations in the low millions, including Fort Worth. Due to the communications blackout, no other details about the state of the UNAS during the Reaper occupation were known to the outside galaxy. Presidents of the UNAS Kaitlin Cheung: War-time president. Authorized re-construction of the Statue of Liberty in 2096. Enrique Aguilar: Was assassinated by a Virginian dissenter alongside the Chinese premier Ying Xiong in 2176. Christopher Huerta: Also known as the "zombie president". In 2185, he suffered a stroke that left him braindead for 90 minutes, but retained cognitive functions with assistance of a VI. Was sued by the Speaker of the House over transfer of responsibilities. Lisa Ford: Speaker of the House in UNAS congress. Sued president Huerta in 2185 for acting illegally as president, contending she should've become the Vice President upon former's brain death. Category:Nations Category:Systems Alliance